Wednesday, October 24, 2012

See updates below – In the next few days
the transmission lines that allow Canada to broadcast to the world will
be taken down one by one. For more than 67 years Radio Canada
International’s shortwave transmitters have guaranteed that Canada’s
voice would be heard despite the Cold War, despite natural disasters,
and Internet blocking. Now this efficient, cost effective communications
tool will be dismantled by Canada’s public broadcaster
CBC/Radio-Canada.

Those of us who understand how important this lifeline to the world
is to world communication are sick to our stomachs at the rapidity with
which the broadcaster wants to make the transmitters disappear.
Shortwave broadcasts of Radio Canada International ended on June 24,
2012. Other countries’ use of our transmitters will end on October 31.

But CBC/Radio-Canada has already started the process of dismantling
unused transmitters, and will start taking down still functioning
transmission lines very shortly.

Why are they in such a hurry?

CBC/Radio-Canada has never understood the importance of international
broadcasting, and is betting that Canadians will ignore the fact that a
web-only service has limited impact while shortwave radio can reach
more than 800 million radio receivers around the world.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Starting from October 28th, our transmission to North America will be
changed to 6115 KHz and 15440 KHz from 2200 to 2300 UTC. In addition,
RTI's programming can also be heard on 1210 KHz from 0400 to 0500 UTC in
Sacramento, California and on 750 KHz from 1400 to 1500 UTC in
Baltimore, Maryland. In Europe, listeners can tune in to our programs
on 3965 KHz from 1800 to 1900 UTC.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has described recent
interruptions to news delivered by satellite into parts of the Middle
East as “an attack on media independence.”

The targeted jamming cut off radio and television content by
broadcasters including the BBC, France 24, Deutsche Welle and the Voice
of America. European satellite operator Eutelsat reports that the
"deliberate and intermittent interference," originated from Syria and
Iran.

EBU Director General Ingrid Deltenre said: “Access to information is a
universal human right and an essential component for democracy. We
deplore this attack on media freedom.”

The most recent episode may link to a Eutelsat decision to stop
carrying 19 Iranian channels operated by Iran's state media
organization, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB). Eutelsat
said
it had taken Iranian state television and radio channels off air to comply with tougher EU sanctions on the Islamic state.

In recent years, Iran has jammed the reception of a variety of
broadcasters, according to the International Telecommunications Union
(ITU).

The practice of deliberate interference with broadcast signals is
banned under ITU rules. In February 2012, the ITU called upon the
world’s nations to take "necessary actions" to stop intentional
interference with satellite transmissions.

The change in ITU regulations, which was approved at the World
Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-12) in Geneva, Switzerland, came
after numerous complaints that international satellite TV programs in
Persian and Arabic were suffering from deliberate interference.

Organisers of the European Podcast Awards are looking for nominations
for this year’s competition, with a closing date in January 2013.
Sponsored by Olympus Audio Systems, the EPA sees producers of podcasts
and web radio shows from across 10 countries in Europe compete firstly
for domestic acclaim, followed by a ‘podcast of podcasts’ shootout with
European winners in each of the four categories: Personality, Non
Profit, Business and Professional.

Nominations – from producers and host themselves, or from their
listeners – are now being accepted for the 2012 European Podcast Award.
The only condition of entry is that you must have an RSS feed populated
with at least 3 episodes in MP3 format and each produced in 2012.

Dave Thackeray, ‘The Podcast Guy’ and UK Ambassador to the European
Podcast Award, told RadioToday.co.uk: “The European Podcast Award is now
a well-established gong and is well-respected having been sponsored for
four years by Olympus. Web radio and podcasting is fast becoming a
fantastic outlet for every independent radio producer, with the
ubiquitous availability of devices that allow millions in the UK alone
the chance to listen to much more than just terrestrial radio.

“Our judges come from every corner of the industry and winners in
past years have run the gamut of styles and themes. 2012 promises to
offer a greater array of choices than ever – but you need to be quick to
make sure you’ve got the best chance of winning.”

China Radio International launched an overseas radio station in
Katmandu, capital city of Nepal, bringing the number of its overseas
stations to 80.

CRI held an inauguration ceremony at its headquarters in Beijing,
China last week. Li Wei, Vice Minister of the State Administration of
Radio, Film and Television, stressed the significance of the Katmandu
station, saying the launch of the station marks CRI's enhanced influence
and competitiveness.

The newly launched station will broadcast in Nepalese for 18 hours each
day. It will provide Nepali audiences with programs produced locally,
bringing them the latest and most comprehensive news and information
about China.

Indian government is planning to set up a facility that will monitor the programme content broadcast on FM Radio stations.

Information and Broadcasting Secretary Uday Kumar Varma said there
was a need to monitor radio content as nearly 800 more FM channels are
likely to come up in the next couple of years.

Speaking at the Electronic Media Monitoring Centre (EMMC) in New
Delhi, he said, "The whole world of monitoring of radio content is still
to be handled and addressed in a meaningful manner. We do have a
mechanism but I think we need to keep that mechanism evolving. With 800
plus FM channels expected to come in next one to three years, there will
be quite a handful that will need to be addressed".

He said private channels in the coming days would get permission to
broadcast news which makes the need to monitor content even more
pertinent. "They will begin with All India Radio news, but they may be
allowed to generate and broadcast local news and that would have several
manifestations which will need to be monitored," Varma said.

NHK launched a live‐streaming application of NHK WORLD TV, NHK’s
international English TV channel, for domestically‐used Android OSsmart
phones.

NHK WORLD TV’s live‐streaming has been available on its website or
via iPhone and iPad in Japan and overseas to make it easier for people
to access and enjoy its programs.

NHK also re-stated its commitment to making further endeavours both
in quality content creation and in reach, so more and more people will
be able to enjoy its international broadcasting services in the future.

Friday, October 19, 2012

Once touted as the “Savior of
Shortwave,” Digital Radio Mondiale has not lived up to its hype. Proposed in
1988, with early field-testing in 2000, inaugural broadcasting in 2001 and its
official rollout in 2003, DRM has had a lackluster career over the last decade.

With the allure of FM-quality audio and
fade-free operation, it had appeared that DRM might revive the shortwave
community. Unfortunately, it has been overcome by other events, some technical
and some social. The main weakness has been alternate sources of information
and entertainment, fueled by the very technology that gave DRM hope.

Additionally, in areas of the world
without ubiquitous social media, DRM has yet to realize receivers at a moderate
cost with adequate battery life. The very processing technology that allows
improved operation using the more complex DRM waveform costs more and consumes
more power than the standard AM receiver. A quick look at standalone DRM
receivers over the past decade shows almost a dozen companies entering the
market, only to retreat when the promise didn’t materialize.

Aiming to provide vital information to the farmers in the state, the
Tamil Nadu government has decided to set up 28 community radio stations
at a cost of Rs 14 crore.

The announcement was made today by Agriculture Minister S
Damodaran while inaugurating the Farm School of All India Radio on
Nutritious Millets in Chennai.

The government also has plans to recruit 504 Agricultural
Officers and 417 Assistant Agricultural officers offering additional
help to the farmers along with providing information to them.

All India Radio will commence broadcast of the 30 minute course on nutritious millets for 13 weeks from 1 November at 7:30pm.

Damodaran stated that it was important to adapt to integrated
farming, and growing millets in addition to rice and other crops was
equally important for the country and to increase the farmers’ income.
The farmers thus need to use media to learn about the latest farm
technologies.

Tamil Nadu Agricultural University vice-chancellor Dr K Ramasamy
said, “Since India would become the capital of diabetes by 2025, it was
important to produce more millet.”

Programming from the Deutsche Welle and other foreign broadcasters has
been jammed in parts of the Middle East. DW Director General Erik
Betterman called the interruption an attack on freedom of the press.

Western radio and television broadcasts to parts of the Middle East have
apparently been cut off because of a targeted jamming attack. In
addition to programming by Deutsche Welle, the BBC and Voice of America
have also been affected.

European satellite operator Eutelsat said earlier this week that the
"deliberate and intermittent interference" originated in Syria.

Deutsche Welle programming was last interrupted on Thursday morning
(18.10.2012). DW Director General Erik Bettermann protested against the
renewed attack on freedom of expression. In cooperation with other
foreign broadcasters, the Deutsche Welle was preparing a resolution
against the jamming, Bettermann said.

Experts suspected that Iran was behind the current interruptions.
According to media reports, the country has jammed reception of a
variety of broadcasters in recent years.

The most recent episode, experts said, could be connected to a Eutelsat
decision to stop carrying 19 Iranian channels. The satellite operator on
Monday stopped broadcasting television and radio stations operated by
Iran's state media organization, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting
(IRIB). Effective immediately, the programming offered by these
channels, including the international news channel "Press TV," is no
longer available outside of Iran.

Last week, Adventist World Radio’s board of directors voted the
ministry’s 2013 budget, which includes a significant increase in
shortwave airtime for the new broadcast season, at a cost of well over
half a million dollars. Currently, AWR is scheduled to broadcast for
27,177 hours in 2012; next year, the schedule will expand by 5,200 hours
– an increase of nearly 20 percent.

“We are able to make this welcome change thanks to several years of
solid financial stability,” says AWR president Dowell Chow. “In years
past, we were forced to reduce the frequency of programs for some
languages, due to financial constraints. We are very, very pleased that
now we will be able not only to restore some of those programs, but also
add new languages for some key territories.”

The additional broadcasts will be spread over 21 languages – such as
Amharic, Somali, Panjabi, and Urdu – for listeners in Africa and Asia.
These languages were chosen in close consultation with AWR’s Africa and
Asia region directors, who identified the areas of most need and highest
priority. In some cases, the frequency of some programs will be
increased from half an hour per day to twice a day, while for other
languages, the program length will be doubled from half an hour to a
whole hour.

“Delivering as many programs as possible to listeners every day is
the core purpose of AWR,” Chow says, “and we are very grateful to God
that we are able to expand this ministry wider and wider so that more
people can hear the gospel in these languages.”

Two of the world’s top three providers
of satellite capacity are locked in battle over rights to 500MHz of
transmission spectrum for the lucrative UK DTH market served by BSkyB
and also Freeview. The dispute, which has been simmering several years,
was brought back to the boil by SES launching a new satellite, Astra 2F,
into orbit in September, and stating that it intends taking over 500MHz
of spectrum currently used by Eutelsat. Its intention is to do this
from October 2013, at 28.2 degrees East, which is a prime slot covering
the UK and Ireland, beaming highly popular channels from the BBC, ITV
and Channel 4. In total, the spectrum under dispute equates to 15
transponders capable of carrying 140 to 180 HD channels.

SES argues that there is no dispute
because it had negotiated the rights to the claimed spectrum back in
2005, and that Eutelsat had been operating over those frequencies only
on a temporary basis. The rights had been owned by Deutsche Telekom
until 2005, with an agreement before then for Eutelsat to use the
spectrum. But in 2005, Deutsche Telekom appeared to hand the rights over
to German satellite services company Media Broadcast, which in turn
signed a deal for those rights with SES. Having launched Astra 2F in the
right position, SES now wants to invoke those rights that it believes
it owns.

Meanwhile, Media Broadcast had been leasing capacity itself from
Eutelsat, but according to some reports, ended that arrangement last
year. For its part, Eutelsat is arguing that its own agreement with
Deutsche Telekom had no time limit, and was still in force. The dispute
therefore appears to hinge on whether SES actually did have full rights
to the spectrum after its deal with Media Broadcast, if Eutelsat had a
pre-existing contract for them dating back to 1999 that had never been
annulled.

Eutelsat has now requested the International Chamber of Commerce
(ICC) in Paris to rule on whether Media Broadcast and Deutsche Telekom
did have the right to snatch away the spectrum from Eutelsat. The ICC is
an international business body that does arbitrate in disputes between
major enterprises, although it is not totally clear whether its decision
is absolutely binding across the world of satellite operations.

SES is the world’s second-largest
telecommunications satellite operator by revenue after Intelsat, both
based in Luxembourg, and operates a fleet of 50 geostationary satellites
able to reach 99 percent of the world’s population. France-based
Eutelsat is the world’s third largest satellite provider, covering the
whole of Europe, as well as the Middle East, Africa, India and
significant parts of Asia and the Americas.

A record number of radio services and companies are supporting this
year’s Radio Festival, taking place next to MediaCityUK in Salford
Quays.
Organisers tell us tickets for annual event are selling fast but a
limited number are left. High profile speakers already secured include
Pete Waterman, BBC Radio 2 presenter Jeremy Vine and Fru Hazlitt,
Commercial Director at ITV. Other names include Global Radio’s Stephen
Miron and Richard Park, BBC Radio 1’s Ben Cooper, Frank Skinner,
Spotify’s Chris Maples, Twitter’s Bruce Daisley, Adrian Chiles from ITV
Sport and Heart and Classic FM’s Margherita Taylor and many more.

The Radio Academy’s Hall of Fame Dinner, which will see Mick Hucknall
presented with the PPL Lifetime Achievement Award, also has a limited
number of tickets still available.

A full programme will be released shortly, incorporating the theme,
‘Opening Ears to Excellence’, emphasising The Radio Academy’s ongoing
commitment to the encouragement, recognition and promotion of excellence
in UK radio broadcasting and audio production.

Clive Dickens, Chairman of the Radio Festival, told RadioToday.co.uk:
“Once again we have had a fantastic response from sponsors and partners
for this year’s Radio Festival, Techcon, Foot in the Door & Hall of
Fame Dinner. The breadth and quality of companies shows the
significance of the Festival for the wider radio industry. We still have
some spaces for businesses who wish to sponsor sessions at the events,
but they are going fast!

“We are looking for a record number of delegates during the Festival,
with tickets still available via the Radio Academy website. We have had
some amazing announcements from the confirmed line-up so far and we
look forward to seeing everyone soon at The Lowry in Salford.”

For more information and to purchase Radio Festival tickets go to radioacademy.org

A
total of 25 jobs will go on the English-language service with arts show
The Strand to be axed and World Briefing replaced by a new programme,
The Newsroom.

News coverage will shrink from 18 to 14 hours
a day during the week, with a "simplified" schedule and "fewer regional
variations".

The number of documentaries will also shrink,
from four weekly strands to three, with Your World axed, and Evan
Davis's The Bottom Line no longer aired on the World Service.

None
of the 27 foreign-language services will be dropped in the latest round
of cutbacks, saving about £12m, which will come into effect by April
next year. Some £30m of cost savings have already been made.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) awarded a Certificate of
Recognition to the Voice of America’s Korean Service in honor of their
70 years of broadcasting to Korea. BBG Governor Victor Ashe and VOA
Director David Ensor visited the Korean Service on October 11, 2012 to
honor the occasion.

The
BBC, together with a number of other broadcasters, is experiencing
deliberate, intermittent interference to its transmissions to audiences
in Europe and the Middle East.

Impacted services include the BBC
World News and BBC Arabic television channels and BBC World Service
radio services in English and Arabic.

Deliberate interference
such as the jamming of transmissions is a blatant violation of
international regulations concerning the use of satellites and we
strongly condemn any practice designed to disrupt audiences’ free access
to news and information.

Radio Veritas, owned and operated by the
Catholic Church in Liberia has been shut down indefinitely by the
Archdiocese of Monrovia.

Rev. Father Jerome Zeigler, head of the Archdiocese of Monrovia said a
major restructure of the institution is pending, including the arrival
of new equipment.

Zeigler told the station employees during an emergency conference
that they would be given their severance benefit for services rendered
the institution in accordance with the labor law of Liberia, but did not
say when.

Sources informed this paper last night the employees would get their
benefits at the end of October as the Church is consulting with the
Labor Ministry on the payment, which could be in the sum of thousands of
dollars. The station is reported to have some 20 full time employees
plus 10 interns.

Fortnight ago, Veritas or truth, which is noted for its hard news and
independence reporting on development affecting the country, was off
the air with technical problem cited, but the employees were barred from
entering the premises.

Veritas, formerly ELCM (Eternal Love Community) Radio started
broadcast here in 1981 as the second Christian-run radio station outfit
after ELWA (Eternal Love Winning in Africa) which opened its door in
1950s by the Sudan Interior Mission.

Those were the two private but church-run stations besides the
state-owned Liberia Broadcasting System (LBS) until the onset of the
rebellion on 24 December, 1989.

But Veritas, under past regimes has experienced difficulties. The
junta shut it down many times during the destruction of its facilities
in the course of the conflict.

It suffered the same fate under former President Charles Taylor when
the station door was closed in 2000. Until it can resume broadcast with
the same reportage of truth-telling, the station will be remembered by
its numerous listeners around the country and abroad.

Maputo — A community radio station in central
Mozambique, shut down on Friday allegedly on the orders of the local
mayor, re-opened on Monday according to a report in the independent
daily newsheet "Mediafax".

The Macequece community radio, owned by the Macequece Community
Association of Manica (ACOMAM), broadcasts in Manica Town, and the
radio's editor, Arlindo Francisco claims that the order to take the
radio off the air came from the mayor of Manica, Moguene Candieiro,
although the mayor vigorously denies the claim.

The interference of the mayor "could at no time be accepted, because
the radio belongs to the community and not to the Municipal Council",
said Francisco. It is believed that Candieiro ordered the closure,
because the radio declined to broadcast political messages that he
wanted transmitted.

Francisco said that the radio reopened after lengthy meetings between the radio managers and municipal officials.

But Candieiro gives a different version of events. He blamed the
closure on conflict within ACOMAM. "We sent the police to protect the
radio, because there's a war between the associates", he claimed. "I
didn't order the closure. Who am I to order a radio to shut down?"

He predicted on Friday – accurately as it turned out – that the radio
would re-open on Monday "because the associates have sat down and
discussed the matters that divide them".

Francisco, however, denied there was any such internal dispute.
"There's no friction between the associates", he said. "There was in the
past, but the matter was overcome a long time ago".

He claimed that the person who created discord in the past had left
and was now involved with the mayor in intrigues against the radio
station. "What is happened is that the politicians want to interfere in
the radio and we won't let them", said Francisco

The Community Radio Forum (FORCOM) sent a delegation, headed by its
President, Joao dos Santos Jeronimo, to Manica at the weekend to
investigate. The district police commander, Anito Machava, told them he
had received orders from the mayor to close the radio because there was a
demonstration taking place at its premises. But when the commander went
there personally, he could see no sign of any demonstration.

Ariane Ngoti, communications assistant in
charge of radio broadcasting at Burundi Red Cross says Red Cross
visibility has increased dramatically since 2009, when volunteers
started broadcasting their experiences through radio stations all over
the country. The number of volunteers has also increased to 350,000.

Ariane, travels from province to province meeting various volunteers.
"The volunteers are always eager to share their stories and
experiences," she says.

Ariane records these into a one-hour radio programme and distributes
it to five nationalwide radio stations. The name of the radio programme
is Agir pour Sauver (meaning, "act to bring salvation" as loosely
translated into English).

The content of this programme has impressed five commercial radio
stations who now offer free airtime to the National Society allowing
them to reach audiences all across the country.

The programme is broadcasted in French and Kirundi each week on Rema
FM, Africa Republic Radio, National Radio and Television for Burundi.

Through the programme, volunteers are able to explain how they
respond to different emergencies and this creates awareness among the
listeners. "We recently aired a malaria campaign funded by Belgiun Red
Cross," Ariane says. "Volunteers advised the listeners on malaria
prevention. The campaign was successful and in subsequent programmes the
volunteers reported that families in the community now use mosquito
nets, while pregnant women access medical care when they suspect that
they have malaria."

Arian, not only interviews the Red Cross volunteers, but she also
talks to local administration and partner organizations in order to get a
wider view of the various topics discussed in the programme.

"Volunteers also share the various income generating initiatives that
they are involved in and how they are assisting vulnerable people
within their communities. Other topical issues discussed are how to
protect the environment, and how to administer first aid," she says.

Such initiatives reflect successful humanitarian diplomacy in action.
Staff and volunteers from the Burundi Red Cross have demonstrated that
they can carry out quiet diplomacy, mobilize resources locally, and
assist the most vulnerable people in the community through sharing
information on a weekly basis.

It is through 'behind the scenes' negotiations that they have been
able to access various resources that encourage volunteer development.
Airtime that would ordinarily break the organization's budget can now be
accessed free of charge.

Humanitarian diplomacy has become a pillar of support for Burundi Red
Cross and their stories are worth telling repeatedly. The National
Society is now on the road to standing on its own and becoming a model
of empowerment and change in their communities, and for Africa more
broadly.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Programs about the environment won both radio and TV categories of
the inaugural Seoul Awards presented at the ABU General Assembly gala
awards evening in the Korean capital.

The Seoul Awards were given to the TV and radio
projects that best contributed to the development of broadcasting in the
Asia-Pacific region throughout the past year.

The inaugural awards were presented by Mr Gil Hwan-young, Vice
President of Korean Broadcasting System at a function attended by more
than 400 delegates and guests.

The winner of the TV category was the CARE (Change Asia, Rescue the
Earth) series by KBS and the radio category was won by the Green Radio
initiative of RRI-Indonesia.

More than 50 radio and television programs or program segments were
selected for the finals of the ABU Awards from 166 television and 76
radio entries from 18 countries and 25 organisations, a field the
Union’s Secretary-General Dr Javad Mottaghi said reflected the scope and
quality of programming the annual ABU Prizes attracts.

A popular winner in the Interactive Program Category
for radio was SBS Asia Pop entered by Australia’s multicultural
broadcaster and which reflected the popularity of Asian music in that
country and internationally.

The Entertainment TV Award was given to Mr Isao
Okajima from JBA Japan for Lady's Story: 1600 Days of Orphan Chimpanzee
and a Zookeeper, while the ABU Perspective Award for a program that
delivered the best message on a theme – which for 2012 was "water" – was
won by Global Report: Endangered Times, The Global Water Crisis by KBS.

The Special Jury Prize for the production crew of a
TV or radio program that demonstrated innovative and creative ideas
despite limited resources went to Metro TV of Indonesia for The
President of Grey Republic and to Bangladesh Betar for the radio program
Thorns on the Way.

The Dennis Anthony Memorial Award for the top news
report of the year was sponsored by CNN and won by China Central
Television for a report on China's manned space mission.

Entertainment at the gala awards dinner was a special performance by
Fusion Korea, the World Vision Children's Choir and by popular K-Pop
group Infinite.

The full list of ABU Prizes is as follows:

ABU Radio Prizes Winners for 2012

Drama - The Day I Became Iron by JBA Mainichi Broadcasting System, Japan;

European Eutelsat and the British
satellite telecoms operator Arqiva have stopped broadcasting through
their satellites the signal for 19 Iranian TV and radio stations. The
decision was made on October 15 right after the EU approved the new set
of economic sanctions against Teheran.

The measures introduced by the
Europeans fit well into the framework of the information war between the
West and the Islamic republic. In the past, however, it was Iran who
was blamed for limiting the spread of information as it reportedly
jammed the signal of several Western broadcasters. But the fact that
Europe, who prides itself on its freedom rights, is introducing similar
measures is something new.

In any event, the
broadcasting tension around the Islamic Republic is growing and one has
to admit that the information cold war between Iran and its opponents is
reaching its peak.

And it is a very worrisome fact.
Here is the opinion of Vladimir Yevseev, a military expert and the head
of the Russian Center for Social and Political Studies:

“It
is no secret that the escalation of propaganda and counter-propaganda
as well as increased activity of psychological pressure on the potential
enemy can be a sign of preparation for actual military action. That is
the way it happened in the XX century and the way it will be in the XXI
century. Let's recall the beginning of World War II. The authorities of
the opposing sides took away radio sets from their population, created
all sorts of shields against the enemy's propaganda by jamming the
enemy's radio broadcasting by technical means. The ideological
leadership of potential opponents directly prepared their nations for a
victorious war, while the opponent's population for moral degradation
and losses.”

Similar events took place after World
War II. We can recall the Cuban missile crisis around Cuba in 1962,
which brought the world to the brink of nuclear catastrophe. Back then
both in the Soviet Union and in America the mass media did their best to
blame the potential opponent for all sins. One could conclude that they
can substitute the term opponent with a more direct word “enemy”.
Fortunately, back in 1962 reason prevailed both in Moscow and in
Washington.

A similar situation, but on the regional
and not global level, is currently taking place around Iran. And it is
hard to get rid of the impression that the world is on the brink of yet
another crisis, which has yet to be named. Crises have one thing in
common – they get named after they break out. One has to hope that we
can still avoid the appearance of a potential Hormuz crisis, or a crisis
with a similar name.

The event has attracted speakers from the USA, Canada, UK, Europe, Africa and Asia.

Prof. Sir Martin Sweeting G3YJO will be giving a presentation titled
‘Pushing the capabilities of small satellites’ on Thursday, October 11
at 0900 JST (0000 UT).

“Small satellites have developed rapidly during the last decade and
indeed have become quite fashionable with many organizations. Surrey has
continued to research into the latest small satellite techniques and
applications to Earth observation and remote sensing – as well as
satellite timing & navigation and planetary exploration.”

Prasar Bharati has revealed that it has plans to set up 839 new FM stations in private sector. The stations would be launched in 290 cities of the country in near future.

The plans were revealed by the Secretary
Union Information Broadcasting Ministry Uday Kumar Verma at inaugural
ceremony and launch of 10 MW FM Channel-2 of the local station of All
India Radio popularly known as 'Radio Kashmir.

He also further highlighted that the 10
to 20 FM Channels in private sector have been earmarked for Jammu and
Kashmir under this programme.

As an added incentive he further
highlighted that the license fee and the rental fee for the private
parties intending to launch FM stations in the state would be half as
compared to the private persons in rest of the country.

Sunday, October 07, 2012

Following the surprise passing away last month of Michael Owen VK3KI,
the Directors of IARU Region 3, as required by the Constitution, have
appointed Peter Lake ZL2AZ as the new Chairman.

In view of the short time remaining before the next
conference in Vietnam, when a new set of directors will be elected, the
Directors have decided not to co-opt anyone else to fill the vacancy.

Peter ZL2AZ said he was extremely grateful to the fellow
Directors for their support in this difficult time, and for the
procedural work by our Secretary Ken Yamamoto JA1CJP to formalise an
appointment.

He said he would do his best to carry through all the
work in progress, much of it due to items and ideas put in place by the
late Michael VK3KI who had served as the IARU R3 Chairman since 2006.

Peter ZL2AZ said his style will probably be different
from Michael's in some ways - but our goals are the same - to ensure a
growing and successful IARU Region 3.

He said it was a privilege to have the opportunity to serve the member societies and fellow radio amateurs in Region 3.

His background includes a career in telecommunications as
a professional engineer in the New Zealand Post Office and then in
Telecom New Zealand.

This was followed by 14 years in a small and specialised
telecommunications consulting company with a wide variety of assignments
including projects in the Pacific, Asia and South East Asia.

He has been an active radio amateur since high school over 50 years ago.

His involvement in IARU activities dates back to before 1986 and has been a Director of Region 3 from February 2005.

The International Association for Media
and Communication Research (IAMCR) and Fundación Comunica are supporting
World Radio Day 2013.

On 13 February 2013 we will celebrate
World Radio Day for the second time since it was proclaimed by UNESCO as
a day to celebrate radio broadcasting, improve international
cooperation among radio broadcasters and encourage decision-makers to
create and provide access to information through radio, including
community radios.

As part of the celebration, UNESCO is
offering you an opportunity to tell a story about radio to the world.
“Did you know that...?” will be a series of short (1.5 to 2 minutes)
radio spots in which broadcasters and researchers, can share their
facts, figures and anecdotes about radio with the world. If you have a
story, an interesting fact or an example of an innovative programme, let
us know.

If your story is chosen, UNESCO will make
arrangements to call you from their radio studio in Paris, record your
story, edit it and package it for broadcast, targeting prime news and
current affairs time slots of radio stations around the world. The
series will be offered to the world's international broadcasters, 257
public radio broadcasters, and other UNESCO partners, made available in
broadcast quality over the internet and distributed on UNESCO iTunes.
You can tell your story in your mother tongue, or in any of the six UN
official languages: English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic or
Russian.

If you are interested in telling a story, please go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/wrd2013
and let us know what it's about and how to contact you. The deadline to
submit your proposal is 19 October 2012 and the interviews will be
recorded during November and December.

For more information visit UNESCO's World Radio Day internet page

(Source : The International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR))

Luanda — Angola's Mass Media Ministry on
Friday praised the contribution of the National Radio of Angola (RNA),
in the process of training, information and leisure of the Angolans,
Angop has learnt.

This is expressed on a press note issued by the ministry, under the
commemorations of the 36th years of existence of the mentioned radio
station, marked on October 05.

"On this day, we seize the opportunity to exhort all the
professionals of the RNA to continue in a hard manner the holding of its
tasks, making thus possible that radio accomplishes its social
mission", says the press note, signed by the incumbent Minister, José
Luis de Matos.

Nairobi — Ethiopian authorities should halt
their harassment of journalists covering the country's Muslim community
and their intimidation of citizens who have tried to speak to reporters
about sensitive religious, ethnic, and political issues, the Committee
to Protect Journalists said today.

Police in the capital, Addis Ababa, briefly detained Marthe Van Der
Wolf, a reporter with the U.S. government-funded broadcaster Voice of
America as she was covering a protest by members of Ethiopia's Muslim
community at the Anwar Mosque, local journalists said. The protesters
were demonstrating against alleged government interference in Islamic
Council elections scheduled for Sunday, according to VOA and local
journalists.

Wolf was taken to a police station and told to erase her recorded
interviews, and then released without charge, local journalists said.

This week, security officers have also harassed Ethiopian citizens
who were interviewed by VOA's Amharic-language service, according to the
station. Police arrested two individuals who spoke to VOA on Thursday
about a land dispute outside the capital, VOA reported. On Monday,
police harassed individuals who spoke to the station about a dispute
over resources between ethnic communities, the outlet said.

"We urge the government's leadership to set a new tone of tolerance
and halt the bullying tactics of the past," said CPJ East Africa
Consultant Tom Rhodes. "Citizens should be allowed to voice their
opinions to journalists without fearing arrest or intimidation, and
reporters should be allowed to cover even those events the government
dislikes."

For much of the year, Ethiopian authorities have cracked down on
journalists and news outlets reporting on the unprecedented protests by
members of the Muslim community, according to CPJ research. In May,
police detained former VOA correspondent Peter Heinlein overnight on
accusations of "illegal reporting" for covering a similar protest, VOA
reported.

VOA released a statement today that condemned the harassment and
obstruction and said the incident was "designed to prevent journalists
from doing their job."

Three Muslim-oriented papers have not been published in the country
since July after police raided the outlets and searched the homes of
their editors. Yusuf Getachew, editor of Ye Muslimoch Guday, has been
imprisoned on charges of treason and incitement to violence for
reporting on the grievances of the Muslim community, and at least two
journalists, Senior Editor Akemel Negash and copy editor Isaac Eshetu,
have fled into hiding, according to CPJ research.

With six journalists in jail, Ethiopia is the second leading jailer
of journalists in Africa, second only to its neighbor, Eritrea,
according to CPJ research.

(Source : Committee to Protect Journalists, New York via allAfrica.com)

Saturday, October 06, 2012

The Ministry of Communications & IT has decided to "waive off spectrum fee" for Community Radio Services (CRS).

Minister of Communications & IT has
asked Department of Telecom to evolve detailed guidelines by 12th
October, to ensure that the spectrum is optimally used and the channels
use these airwaves only to inform and empower the common man. The waiver
grnated by the government will however cost the government a cost of 25
lakh rupee.

Community radio focuses on low cost and
low return pattern of operations. Donor funding is crucial for CRS, as
most of the donors come from local communities, this financing option is
inadequate and irregular for CRS operating in remote areas and for the
marginalized sections of the society.

This follows requests received from National Advisory Council,
Ministry of Information & Broadcasting and the Community Radio
Association for waiver of spectrum charges for Community Radio
Services.

Community Radio Services (CRS) plays a
vital role in building vibrant communities, in mobilizing groups to
action by informing and empowering citizens, in giving voice to the
marginalized groups of society, and in bringing community needs to the
attention of local and even national governments. CRS can prove to be an
excellent tool for managing plurality in a society and for fostering
democracy.

NASA have released photographs of the amateur radio CubeSats TechEdSat, F-1 and FITSAT-1 taken by an Expedition 33 crew member on the International Space Station (ISS).

Radio amateurs around the world have been listening for signals from
the four new amateur radio CubeSats that were deployed from the ISS on
Thursday, October 4.

The small satellites were transported to the ISS in the HTV-3
(Kounotori 3) cargo vessel that blasted off on an H-IIB rocket from the
Tanegashima Space Center on Saturday, July 21 at 0206 UT.

The cargo vessel arrived at the ISS on July 27 and the ISS Canadarm2
robotic arm was used to install the HTV-3 to its docking port on the
Earth-facing side of the Harmony module at 1434 UT. The CubeSats were
then unloaded by the Expedition 32 crew.

The CubeSats were mounted in a JEM-Small Satellite Orbital Deployer
(J-SSOD). In one pod were TechEdSat, F-1 and FITSAT-1 while in the
second pod were WE-WISH and a scientific CubeSat RAIKO.

Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide KE5DNI put the
J-SSOD into an airlock, which was depressurised and exposed to the
vacuum of space via an automatic door. The Kibo robotic arm was then be
used to grapple the J-SSOD in the airlock and move it out away from the
station so the satellites could be deployed.

WE-WISH and RAIKO were first to deploy at 1437 followed by
TechEdSat, F-1 and FITSAT-1 at 1544 GMT. They could have a life-time of 4
or 5 months before they burn-up in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Friday, October 05, 2012

Following up on last year's highly-successful edition, the New Radio
Group's annual plenary event will take place on October 10-11 at the
EBU's Brussels office, and focus on issues surrounding the mobility of
digital radio.

Radio has been an 'on-the-move' medium since it's inception, and today
in-car audiences make up a significant share of total listening. As well
as striving to retain these audiences through close collaboration with
the car industry, digital radio offers opportunities to reach listening
contexts that have traditionally been poorly served through analogue
radio, such as air travellers, drivers in tunnels and high-speed rail
passengers.

The event is free for EBU Members to attend and registration will open shortly.

A record 660-plus delegates have signed up to attend this year’s ABU
General Assembly, which starts in less than a week in Korea.

ABU General Secretary Dr Javad Mottaghi says he is very pleased with
the response from the Union’s members, industry partners and
international media organisations at a critical time for broadcasting.

And he praised the Korean hosts for their hard work in preparation
for when the towering 63 Convention Center in Seoul opens its doors to
delegates on 10 October.

Earlier this year Dr Mottaghi said to the region’s broadcasting
industry that if the Asia-Pacific really was to be the heart of the 21st
Century, it was vital for its broadcasters to provide the lifeblood for
its advancement.

“The explosion of online offerings, mobile devices and social media
have brought into question the whole basis of public service
broadcasting as we have understood it for generations,” he said. “We all
face these challenges and the ABU General Assembly and its associated
events will provide an ideal common space for us to exchange
experiences, share problems and work together on solutions.”

ABU President Dr Kim In-Kyu is also expected to tell delegates at the
official opening ceremony that broadcasters stand on the precipice of a
rapid digital transformation and that ABU members need to work together
to meet the challenges ahead.

As well as dealing with the business of running an organisation representing more than 230 Asia-Pacific broadcasters, the 49th
ABU General Assembly will host a series of special forums to discuss
media issues as diverse as the challenges faced by public broadcasting,
the future of journalism in a new media age and the role of women in
media workplaces and on-screen.

Seoul will also host the inaugural ABU Radio and Television Song
Festivals, which will be broadcast in countries around the world.

Information on the ABU General Assembly is available via: www.abu.org.my.

Lao National Radio (LNR) - with the support of UNESCO’s International
Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) – is launching a
new local community radio station in the Xiengkho district of the
country next year.

“IPDC has been supporting the development of community media for
decades and is particularly sensitive to projects aiming at
strengthening ethnic minority languages”, says Rosa Gonzalez, UNESCO
Advisor for Communication and Information in the UNESCO Bangkok Office.

Xiengkho, one of the 47 poorest districts of Laos, has been chosen as
the site for this project due to the low number of local radio
services.

A radio station will be built and equipped with the help of LNR staff
and selected trainees with a particular focus on women. The radio
station will primarily provide community-based radio programmes
including ethnic language windows in Lao, Hmong and Khmu.
In line with the project, two mentors will train local radio trainees
from the community on technical operation and maintenance of radio
equipment, radio programme production techniques and journalism. The
trainees will also conduct target audience research among the villagers
of Xiengkho in order to identify their information needs. The results
will be used to produce target based radio programmes.

On Thursday 11 October a number of BBC buildings
around the UK will be opening their doors and encouraging people to
bring tapes, cassettes and recordings of BBC programmes they’ve found in
their attics, under their stairs or in their garages - in the hope that
they help build The Listeners’ Archive.

The
major initiative is part of the BBC’s 90th anniversary celebrations and
aims to recover the lost gems of the BBC’s archive of radio programmes
from 1936 to 2000. It is a pan-BBC Radio project involving BBC local
radio in England, BBC Wales, BBC Northern Ireland, along with BBC Radio
2, BBC Radio 4 and 4 Extra, BBC Radio 5 live and BBC Radio 6 Music.

The
recordings will help enrich the BBC’s archive and plug the gaps in
broadcasting history for future generations. The material collected will
then be broadcast in a special programme to be hosted by Simon Mayo on
Wednesday 14 November - the day of the 90th anniversary of BBC Radio.

The
team are looking for a number of key programmes – including music
sessions by high profile guests pre-1990, comedy programmes pre-1990,
dramas and readings pre-1990, appearances by Dylan Thomas, a number of
Reith lectures and lots more. A full wish list can be found at bbc.co.uk/listenersarchive.

The BBC buildings taking part in the amnesty are:

BBC Bristol, Whiteladies Road, Bristol.

BBC Leeds, Broadcasting Centre, 2 St Peter's Square

BBC Southampton, Havelock Road

BBC WM, BBC Birmingham Mailbox

BBC Norwich, The Forum, Millennium Plain

BBC Newcastle, Barrack Road, Newcastle Upon Tyne

BBC Sheffield, 54 Shoreham Street, Sheffield

BBC Nottingham, Island Business District, London Road, Nottingham

BBC York, 20 Bootham Row, York

BBC Wales, Llantrisant Road, Cardiff

BBC Radio Ulster, Ormeau Avenue, Belfast.

BBC Radio Foyle, Northland Road, Londonderry

Anyone
who isn’t able to get to an Open Day can contact the team behind The
Listeners’ Archive with details of recording they may have by emailing
listenersarchive@bbc.co.uk or via Twitter @BBCListeners.

“Even
before the project was officially announced we began to get offers from
collectors and radio enthusiasts who’ve been delighted to find that they
might be able to share their old recordings with a wider audience. We
have old Kenny Everett Shows, John Peel on Top Gear, Music While You
Work and an old Stuart Henry show to name but a few. And since we told
BBC Local Radio listeners about the project we’ve received a flood of
really promising offers. One collector told us ‘this has made my year’.
We say this may make the BBC’s 90 Years,” says Trevor Dann, Editor of
The Listeners’ Archive.

The Listeners’ Archive is part of a range
of events and programming to mark BBC Radio’s 90th birthday. Other
highlights include: Radio Reunited, an unprecedented global simulcast
across the BBC’s radio networks - including every UK station (local,
network and national) and many World Service outlets - curated by Damon
Albarn; 90 x 90, a series of 90-second miniatures that celebrate,
calibrate and curate the diversity of radio in its widest form, each
episode representing one year of the 90; and a range of programming from
Radio 2’s History of Music Radio to Radio 4’s Who’s Reithian Now?

We have some bad news: The State We're In
is being terminated. As many of you may know, Radio Netherlands
Worldwide was hit with a drastic 70 percent cutback last year by the
Dutch government. We were assured at that time by Radio Netherlands'
outgoing management that the show was still going to be an integral part
of Radio Netherlands, but those assurances didn't hold.

Subsequent changes in the organization's mandate towards a tighter
focus on nations in the developing world, and a much
slower-than-expected transition to new management have made it
impossible for us to continue.

The State We're In exits with its head held high: it was the most
broadcasted, downloaded and decorated program in the long history of
Radio Netherlands Worldwide, and won praise from radio industry leaders
from around the world.

It was heard in top public radio markets the United States, Canada,
Australia, Ireland and in select markets in India and Africa. Our
overall audience reach was 12 million people. We will miss you and all
the engaged, thoughtful responses you had to what we put on the air. It
was a privilege bringing these stories - which sometimes included
stories you told us - to light.

FYI: Our last original program will be produced at the end of October. There will be some repeat shows after that.

Wednesday, October 03, 2012

A trial to turn-off medium-wave transmitters at some BBC local radio
stations is to continue after hardly any listeners complained.

As Radio Today revealed in August,
the BBC is testing the switch-off of medium wave transmission for
certain stations. After the initial five-week trial was completed, so
few listeners complained about the loss of service that the trial is now
to be continued in two areas.

BBC Radio Nottingham’s MW transmitter, and Radio Kent’s relay at
Rusthall near Tunbridge Wells on 1602kHz, will now remain off-air,
possibly indefinitely. The BBC says “This is because we want to assess
the impact of a longer-term switch-off, given the low number of response
in these areas.”

Meanwhile, the trial switch-off has ended as planned at BBC Radio
Merseyside and Lincolnshire, and for BBC Radio Kent’s other medium wave
transmitter at Littlebourne on 774kHz.

The BBC told RadioToday.co.uk in August: “MW services mainly
duplicate what is already available on FM and DAB, and most listeners
will be able to hear their local stations on FM. The BBC is also
committed to a full roll out of local radio stations across the DAB
network. If local radio is not already available on DAB it will be in
the future.

“The aim of the trial is to get a better understanding of the impact
of the loss of MW for our core listeners and also enable us to ensure
adequate coverage is available on other platforms in these.”

India’s heaviest satellite, the 3,400kg GSAT-10, was successfully
launched from French Guiana in the early hours of Saturday 29 September.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) says this mission will
give a big boost to communication, entertainment and civil aviation as
the satellite carries 30 transponders and a component of navigation
system Gagan.

The satellite will have an operational life of around 15 years and be
ready for use in November after successful completion of all tests. It
will be placed along with INSAT-4A and GSAT-12 satellites and will add
to ISRO’s existing own transponder capacity of 168.

AMSAT-UK is a non-profit volunteer organisation for those interested in amateur radio space communications.

AMSAT-UK produces a quarterly newsletter OSCAR News and its members are involved in designing, building and operating amateur radio satellites.

Membership
is open to anyone who has an interest in amateur radio satellites or
space activities, including the International Space Station (ISS).

The Membership year lasts for 12 months starting on January 1 each year.

If you join
after July 31 of any particular year, then you will receive
complimentary membership for the whole of the following year, i.e. join
on Oct 3, 2012, and you have nothing to pay until Dec 31, 2013.

These separate rates go to offset the extra postage costs involved in
mailing our quarterly publication, “Oscar News”, to different parts of
the World. Sample copy at http://www.amsat-uk.org/on_193_final.pdf

NHK’s Great East Japan Earthquake Emergency News has won this year’s International Emmy Award in the news category.

On March 11, 2011, the largest earthquake in the country’s history
struck Japan, generating a devastatingly destructive tsunami. NHK, was
immediately on the scene, covering the first moments of the disaster as
it happened, providing continuous up‐to‐the minute coverage and keeping
the public informed.

Within 90 seconds of the earthquake, NHK shifted all TV channels and
radio broadcasts to disaster coverage, repeating the call for evacuation
and conveying essential information to protect property and save lives.

NHK continued broadcasting this coverage for eight days on its main channel.

NHK is Japan’s sole public broadcaster. Funded by receiving fees from
Japanese households, it has a reputation for impartial, high‐quality
programming, including news programs. Through its four nationwide TV
channels, NHK reaches about 50 million households.

NHK was last awarded an International Emmy in 2011, in the current
affairs category, for its ‘Back from the Brink: Inside the Chilean Mine
Disaster’ programme.